How to make your webinars more interactive

Have you ever attended an online webinar that didn't require your direct interaction?

How to make your webinars more interactive

Have you ever attended an online webinar that didn't require your direct interaction?

If so, how much time has passed before being distracted byemail or social networks? Probably not much. It is rather difficult, in fact, to keep the attention high on the contents we want to transmit in e-learning mode.
So what's the trick to engaging users of an online webinar and not making it too boring or difficult to follow? Here are some ideas and suggestions.

  • Ask your prospective students what are the most frequent problems they encounter in the workplace and why they are interested in attending the online training course you offer: it can be a good way to involve them. In other words, it creates the content of the webinar with the participants in mind and adapt the tone and speech language to them.
  • Spread a well-defined program. If you have a preset and well-defined program, it is likely that the participants are more involved. Share the agenda with others in advance, so that everyone knows how they can and should contribute and can prepare accordingly.
  • Always make tests to check the connection quality, audio/video quality, actual file upload.
  • Let the participants know immediately which interaction tools they have available during the webinar (audio, video, chat ...). Choose a software that supports remote communications. These software manage conversations in real time, allow participants to ask questions and help record useful comments and messages to ensure that everyone can follow the conversation.
  • Uses animated interactions, a virtual game related to the theme of the webinar or administers surveys during the session, to gather participants' input on a topic of discussion.
  • Avoid static presentations using impactful animations and images in your presentations, making them engaging and fun.
  • Take short breaks. Stop every two or three slides and ask your students questions. When the students answer, ask them to say their name, to create a more intimate atmosphere and help the students get to know each other and feel at ease. You can take advantage of these pauses to respond to your students' questions proactively (instead of waiting until the end of the webinar): this can help users feel followed and involved.
  • Don't go too far. The ideal duration of your webinar is 30 minutes, maximum 60. It takes care of the duration of the interventions, bearing in mind that after 2 minutes the attention threshold tends to decrease.
  • Send useful and summary information at the end of the webinar. For example, you could send an email summarizing the main contents.
  • Ask participants which parts they liked most and which ones they liked least. Was there anything that could have been skipped or deepened? Encourage them to provide honest feedback so as to improve the quality of upcoming webinars.
  • Use social media. Using social media, such as Twitter, is a great way to encourage people to stay in touch after the webinar and ask follow-up questions. You could create a hashtag for your webinar, to make it even easier to keep track of tweets related to your webinar.

By following these suggestions, users will be much less likely to get distracted and will be more likely to participate in their e-learning training path.


All blog posts